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Shanxi combats air pollution in China with smog curbs to 2020

Shanxi province is China’s primary coal mining hub and a major industrial manufacturing region. The province is now planning to voluntarily curb production of its goods over the course of the next three winters in an effort to cut down on smog pollution and improve air quality. This is part of a 2018 to 2020 anti-pollution crackdown, which hopes to take proper measures in improving the environmental state and reputation of the world’s second-largest economy.

Twenty-eight northern Chinese cities have been issued a draft guidance on pollution reduction during winter months, and four of these cities are in Shanxi. The province is home to about 36 million people, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics of China, as well as a thriving coal mining industry.

Local authorities in China are hoping to back their promises to the national and international communities by stepping up actions to reduce pollution and start protecting the environment. “Each level of officials must make anti-pollution tasks a significant stance in their work,” the Shanxi government said in a statement. “Those who neglect their duties, forge monitoring data or fail the targets will be punished.” In addition to production restrictions, efforts will include cutting down coal consumption by relying more on natural gas for heating as well as replacing some of the region’s coal-fired power plants.

Local officials seem to be taking the mandate very seriously. “Each city [in Shanxi] should set up plans on production restrictions in steel, construction materials, non-ferrous and chemicals by the end of September each year,” officials announced. The province is hoping to go beyond the 15 percent reduction in emissions — compared to levels recorded in 2015 — that has been mandated by the national government, setting its own goal of a 20 percent decrease in sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 2020.